Enter another Carrier.

2 Car. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dogs, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this house is turned upside down, since Robin ostler died.

1 Car. Poor fellow! never joyed since the price of oats rose it was the death of him.

2 Car. I think, this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench.

1 Car. Like a tench? by the mass, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit, than I have been since the first cock.

2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach'.

1 Car. What, ostler! come away and be hanged; come away.

2 Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing-cross.

1 Car. 'Odsbody! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved.—What, ostler!—A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.-Come, and be hanged:hast no faith in thee?

Enter GADSHILL.

Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?

being taken from a cess, tax, or subsidy; which being by regular and moderate rates, when anything was exorbitant, or out of measure, it was said to be out of all cess." 8

as dank here as a DOG,] The Rev. Mr. Barry suggests to me, that we should read dock for "dog," the error having easily arisen from the mishearing of the word.

9

breeds fleas like a LOACH.] Why one carrier should say that he has been " stung like a tench," and the other that "chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach," has not been satisfactorily explained. Farmer thought that “tench" was a misprint for trout, which is spotted; and Monck Mason suggests that the "loach" is a very prolific fish, and hence that the carrier uses it as a simile.

1 Car. I think it be two o'clock.

Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable.

1 Car. Nay, soft, I pray ye: I know a trick worth two of that, i' faith.

Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thine.

2 Car. Ay, when? canst tell'?-Lend me thy lantern, quoth a?-marry, I'll see thee hanged first.

Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?

2 Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen: they will along with company, for they have great charge. [Exeunt Carriers.

Gads. What, ho! chamberlain !

Cham. [Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse.

Gads. That's even as fair as-at hand, quoth the chamberlain; for thou variest no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'st the plot how.

Enter Chamberlain3.

Cham. Good morrow, master Gadshill. It holds current, that I told you yesternight: there's a franklin in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what*. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: they will away presently.

Ay, when? canst tell?] This proverbial expression has occurred in "The Comedy of Errors," Vol. ii. p. 137.

2 At hand, quoth pick-purse.] A proverbial phrase met with in many writers of the time.

3 Enter Chamberlain.] The entrance of the chamberlain takes place, according to the old copies, when first Gadshill calls him, but it is evidently improperly marked there.

God knows what.] Though the folio, every now and then, omits such expressions as "zounds and "i' faith," there is not the slightest consistency in its corrections of this kind: it permits these words to stand.

Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with saint Nicholas' clerks, I'll give thee this neck.

Cham. No, I'll none of it: I pr'ythee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou worship'st saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.

Gads. What talkest thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows; for, if I hang, old sir John hangs with me, and thou knowest he's no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dreamest not of, the which, for sport sake, are content to do the profession some grace, that would, if matters should be looked into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff, sixpenny strikers: none of these mad, mustachio purple-hued malt-worms; but with nobility and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers; such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray : and yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her, for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.

Cham. What! the commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way?

5

Gads. She will, she will; justice hath liquored her.

saint Nicholas' clerks,] This was a very common cant term applied to highwaymen and robbers, but why, it is not easy to decide. Warburton suggests that the patron saint of clerks being St. Nicholas, and Old Nick being a cant name for the devil, the word " clerks" became indifferently applied to scholars and robbers. Grey has shown, that highwaymen were sometimes termed "St. Nicholas' knights." See Dodsley's Old Plays, last edit. vol. vii. p. 308; where several instances are collected relative to "St. Nicholas' clerks," particularly from Dekker's tracts.

6 — burgomasters, and great ONEYERS ;] Various interpretations of this term oneyers " have been suggested, but none of them at all satisfactory. Capell's suggestion, supported by Sir D. Dalrymple, seems the best, and he inserted it in his text; viz. mynheers, the Dutch word "burgomasters" just preceding it. Johnson held that "oneyers" (spelt Oneyres in the oldest copy) was nothing more than one-cers, or ones, similar in its form to privateer, auctioneer, &c. Theobald read moneyers, and Hanmer, owners.

We steal as in a castle, cock-sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible".

Cham. Nay, by my faith; I think you are more beholding to the night, than to fern-seed, for your walking invisible.

Gads. Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as I am a true man.

Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.

Gads. Go to; homo is a common name to all men'. Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Road by Gadshill.

Enter Prince HENRY, and POINS; BARDOLPH and PETO, at some distance.

Poins. Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet'.

P. Hen. Stand close.

7 - we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible.] Fern-seed being of old supposed to be invisible, those who carried it about them were supposed to be invisible also. Possibly the origin of the phrase was, that people walked like fern-seed, invisible.

8 thou shalt have a share in our PURCHASE,] "Purchase" was a common term for booty, or the property obtained by robbery of any kind. It is used exactly in the same sense in "Henry V." Act iii. sc. 2. "They will steal anything and call it purchase." The use of the word in this sense is ancient.

1

9 Go to; homo is a common name to all men.] The words "true man" and "false thief" were frequently opposed in writers of the time; and when Gadshill says, in reply to the chamberlain, that "homo is a common name to all men," he means that it was just as applicable to the "true man," which he had called himself, as to the "false thief," which the chamberlain had termed him. he frets like a GUMMED VELVET.] Velvets and taffatas, when gummed, fretted or wore themselves out by reason of their stiffness: to fret like a gummed velvet, or like a gummed taffata, was a phrase so often in use with our old writers that it became almost proverbial. Steevens made the following apposite quotation from Marston's "Malcontent," 1604, which is all that is necessary :— "I'll come among you, like gum into taffata, fret, fret."

Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! What a brawling dost thou keep?

Fal. Where's Poins, Hal?

P. Hen. He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him. [Pretends to seek POINS. Fal. I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squire" further afoot I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins!-Hal!-a plague upon you both!

-Bardolph!-Peto!-I'll starve, ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man, and leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is three score and ten miles afoot with me, and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough. A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true to one another! [They whistle.] Whew!-A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues: give me my horse, and be hanged.

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down : lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.

Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood! I'll not bear mine own flesh so far

2 - four foot by the SQUIRE-] i. e. by the square, or rule. See "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 368, note 3, and "The Winter's Tale," Vol. iii. p. 505, note 7.